Conservatives for Patients Rights

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

Conservatives for Patients Rights is a front group organized in 2009 by Richard Scott to fight U.S. president Barack Obama's proposals for health reform. According to the Politico news site, Scott has raised $20 million to fight health care reform.[1]

Part of the group's anti-government healthcare campaign is television ads that feature "horror stories" of Canadian and British residents who "allegedly suffered long waits for surgeries, couldn't get the drugs they needed, or had to come to the United States for treatment." [2] After the release of the 2007 Michael Moore movie "Sicko," industry groups including Health Care America and America's Health Insurance Plans responded with similar scare tactics. [3][4]

Creating the appearance of public momentum against health care reform

WhoRunsGov.com, a blog publication of the Washington Post company, reported that Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR) admits that it has undertaken a concerted effort to get people to turn out to town hall meetings nationally to protest health care reform. A spokesperson for the group, Brian Burgess, confirmed that CPR has been emailing out "town hall alert" flyers, and schedules of town hall meetings, to its mailing list. The flier calls the Public Option (a proposal for a government-sponsored, non-profit health insurance plan) "Patient Enemy #1."[5]

These efforts — combined with CPR’s efforts to enlist Tax Day Tea Party participants,[6] as reported by Talking Points Memo, offer a glimpse into how anti-reform groups are trying to create a sense of public momentum in their favor.[7]

Coordinating opposition to health insurance reform

In October 2009, CNN obtained a memo in which Conservatives for Patients Rights leader Rick Scott urged opponents of reform to "synchronize their strategies" before attacking. Scott said CPR planned to remain focused on defeating the so-called "public option," a publicly-funded health insurance plan that would be affordable. He suggested to the other anti-reform groups that they each choose to focus their fire on "a single specific facet of each plan," like individual and employer mandates, "massive tax increases" or "deep cuts in Medicare."[8]

Background

Maggie Mahar at the Century Foundation's Health Beat blog reports that Scott previously started the for-profit hospital chain in 1987 that later became the $23 billion Columbia/HCA. He was ousted from this post in 1997 after an FBI investigation of Columbia/HCA that led to 14 felony convictions and $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud.[9]